Tuesday, 21 October 2014

More Troy Megadungeon details, this bit specifically inspired by This post.

In the half finished Arena in Cannakale The Table Map has been converted to a loot scoreboard.

Adventurers returning from the depths deposit their cash on the table and the total goes up on the scoreboard.

The team at the top of the scoreboard is exempt from Adventurers tax.

The Scoreboard currently looks like this:

The Score Board

Status

Name

Score

Notes

Live

The Sons of Men

5255

Went straight down to level 3 on their first delve. Have not been seen for 2 weeks

Live

The Lamenters

3098

Found a cache on Level 2 after following a treasure map.

Live

The Iron Crows

1728

Snuck into the centaur race on level 4 and made away with a race prize

Live

The Disciples

1333

All Clerics or divine casters, apparently using divinations to find treasure.

Live

The Strangers

1296

managed a three or so average hauls

Live

Higgins’ Heroes

775

Came out with a pile of expensive furniture

Live

“Player Party”

220

Live

Jacks

150

The board is going to update each week as parties return from the depths laden down with loot.

Like in This is Thracia I have a table of rumours but I am handing them out more generously this time around. With other adventuring parties delving into the Ruins, The Scoreboard and Valthrun (the local Sage)’s big mouth information comes out of the depths much quicker.

A selection of Rumours the players have had about Troy so far are:

Pandaras The Bone Lord rules the West section of the first level.

There is a Dungeon Market Somewhere on level 2.

Centaur Races happen every month on level 4.

The South section’s gate is missing.

The Apple of Discord is hidden somewhere on the first level.

The western section of level 2 is home to a lot of spiders.

The Sword of Troy has gone missing and is somewhere in the Dungeon.

Athena’s Helm is somewhere within the Dungeon and militant Amazons are looking for it.

The Necromancer Wizard in the fort to the South of the city has work for Adventurers going into Troy.

The Board and the Rumours are both designed to encourage player led exploration and competition, giving out enough information for players to make informed decisions about where to adventure. We have had 2 sessions so far and the players are starting to put together a good idea of what can be found where on the first level, from talking to Acolytes of the various temples in the Eastern section of level 1 and some rooms with clues and riddles. It has also come to light that I was too stingy on my first pass of Treasure so I have revisited my currently finished levels and change dup some of the loot.

I currently have Maps going down to Level 4 part 2 (there are 4 sections to each level) and fully stocked levels down to Level 2 part 4. Over the first 2 sessions the players have explored about 2/3 of Level 1 part 1.

Finally here is my Player Doc if you want to follow along at home or see the rest of the House rules I am adding.

Hades has teamed up with Hecate and turned the haunted Ruins of Troy into a road to the Underworld. He has dared the champions of the gods to break the curse of Troy and loot the dungeon of his treasures and has also stolen relics of each of the gods and hidden them throughout the dungeon. Hades has invited his allies as well as opponents of the Olympians into the dungeon for glory, profit and to challenge the champions of the Gods.

Clerics and Oracles across the realm have been receiving visions showing the perpetually moonlit city of Troy sinking into the earth. A great pit opens in the centre of the city and buildings are pushed out towards the walls and down lining the growing maw. At the base of the pit stand Hades and Hecate with a pile of divine treasures before them, with a wave of his hand the treasures fly up the pit and into the various dungeon levels through openings and windows secreting themselves throughout. A wide tunnel unwinds before them as they walk to the surface and throw their challenge into the heavens.

Adventurers from all over Greece and the Empire are flocking back to Cannakale, which Dianakus the new Legate seems oddly well prepared for. A scoreboard has been set up in the old Arena (now converted to a Tavern) tallying the hoards that adventurers recover from the depths (and allowing him to levy a 10% tax upon it)

I'm going to use the new edition of D&D and test the following House rules:

Inventory

You have a number of line in your inventory equal to your Strength score. Half your dex score of them are “Quick” slots (belt, scabbard pocket etc) that you can get to quickly. Each line takes about 1 typical item. more details here:

When you are hit instead of taking Damage you can have your Shield take the hit for you becoming destroyed in the process. Magic shields often are just disarmed instead of destroyed but that varies by Shield.

Like it says you get XP for finding treasures and bringing them back to the surface rather than killing Monsters. There is also probably XP available for completing quests and stuff like that. (I’m testing this and it will probably change when the DMG comes out)